Waiting for you
by Naitriab
Summary: King Arathorn and his wife have been without a child for many years and ask for help from Lord Elrond. When their son is born they are forced to give him up as otherwise their kingdom will fall. AU obviously
1. Default Chapter

I'm not giving up on 'What If ... ?' yet I'm just taking a break while I wait for insperation to hit me.

I've read a few other stories on here which are retellings of fairy tales i.e. Cinderella and 'The Little Mermaid' and thought that I would try my own. Obviously this is an AU and an eventual L/A pairing.

For the purposses of the story Arathorn and his wife are still alive as Aragorn needs some kind of parent other than Elrond.

As to which fairy tale this is it should be obvious, if it isn't then I will tell all of those with a serious mental block in the next chapter.

* * *

Once Upon a time ...

It had been 10 years since King Arathorn had asscended to the throne of Gondor and 5 years since he had married the beautiful Gilraen, for some years the pair lived in harmony with their neighbours. It was when the evil mage Sauron began to look towards expanding his already vast kingdom that Arathorn began to worry about the lack of any heir to his throne. In vain his counselor Denethor advised the good king to abandon his wife and find another who would be able to supply the king with the child that he so desired to have. Disregarding the advice of his friend Arathorn sent a messenger to Elrond the wisest healer in all the lands to try and find out why the queen was unable to conceive a child.

Elrond was one of the last elves left in Middle-Earth as many of them had listened to the call of the sea and departed for fairer shores. He had avoided dealings with men as he could see that a war was coming to them and he did not wish to see the last of his people caught up in the war. This message though held nothing but respect for the elven king and a request for help that he was pleased to grant. His sons and daughter were well aware of what they were to do when their father was not there he had made sure that all of his children were capable of running Imladris should anything happen to him his people would be safe.

The visit of an elf let alone one of the kings was an event of note to the people who lived in Minas Tirith, they were expecting a display, what they got was a tall man with brown hair who slipped in one of the side gates deliberately avoiding notice. He had got bored with that before he had lived out his first 100 years. Elrond made his way up the citadel towards the palace where the king and queen lived, all he desired was to see the royal couple and then to leave as quickly as he could manage to without insulting the rulers.

"I desire an audience with King Arathorn." Elrond said to the guards who tried to bar his passage.

"Who should I say is here?" one of them asked

"The man that he contacted about the health of his wife." Elrond said. One of the guards nodded and hurried into the palace to find King Arathorn. Elrond meanwhile was worried about being exposed to the view of so many humans, despite the fact that the hood was up on his cape he still did not feel safe. Despite this the elven king was surprised when a very short time later when the guard returnned with a man who was just approaching his middle years. He had black hair which hung dead straight to his shoulders, from the way that the other guard bowed on seeing the stranger Elrond guessed correctly that this was King Arathorn.

"My Lord I am more grateful than I can say for your assistance in this matter. I hope that you had no trouble in your travel through my country?" Arathorn said as he bowed to the elf then led him into the palace.

Elrond made sure he kept his hood covering his head until Arathorn opened a door much deeper in the palace where just two people were waiting for them, one was a young woman with blonde hair and a calm look on her face. The other was a man much of an age with Arathon however whereas the royal pair looked pleased to see Elrond the other man did not and he had a scowl on his face.

"Lord Elrond may I intorduce my wife Gilraen to you as well as my councillor the esteemed Lord Denethor" Arathorn said.

"Your ladyship it is my pleasure to be here and I hope that I shall soon be able to bring your problems to a satisfactory closure." Elrond said to Gilraen guessing that Denethor did not approve of his being there.

"Any help or advice that you can give me would be most welcome my Lord." Gilraen said

"Then I shall try to not disapoint you lady Gilraen. If you would allow me a short time to set what I need in order then I would be most grateful. I hope that we shall have this problem dealt with shortly." Elrond said.

"Certainly my Lord. I shall wait for you in my chambers." Gilraen and with a slight curtsey to the two kings she retired, Denethor bowed to Arathorn and left as well.

"Thank you for your hospitality my lord." Elrond said before following a servant to his room

* * *

10 months later ...

"I am pleased to announce that as of this evening Gondor has an heir, my son Aragorn was born to Gilraen and myself, rejoice with us, hope is restored to the city." Arathorn announced to the assembled citizens of Minas Tirith, behind him Denethor glared at his king. Until the child had been born Denethor had the possiblity in front of him of being the next king in Minas Tirith and now the brat was going to upset that. He would have to see how quickly he could get the message to his Lord Sauron so that plans could be brought in to combat this new development. None of the other nobles gathered there noticed the look on Denethors face apart from Elrond, the elven king knew what he was going to have to do to ensure that the child would survive but he did not think that the decision would be one that would please the king and queen.

A week later ...

Gilraen sat on the throne in the great hall of Minas Tirith with her child in her arms, this was the childs first time in a crowd and the nobles of Gondor as well as many from around Middle Earth. There were not just the human peoples there but also those of the elven race and the istari. Elronds children had been unable to leave Imladris but there were representatives from the other two major elven kingdoms. From the relm of Mirkwood there were Legolas and Tandil the two youngest sons of Tharundil, the royal pair felt particularly honoured by the presance of the elven queen Galadriel. None of them knew why she was there as despite the fact they had sent her a notice of the birth of the child she must have known about it before Aragorn had been born. Various gifts had been given to the young prince by the nobles however since Denethor and his son Boromir had presented the young prince with a magnificant suit of armor he had not stopped crying, no matter what the parents tried he would not stop crying.

Legolas had not particularly wanted to visit the human city but his father had decreed that he had to so he did, it had been interesting for him as the humans lived very different to the elves. The noise the child was making was a strange one as elven children did not cry, taking a few steps forward he brought himself into the vision of the child. Gilraen was surprised when the baby stopped crying and smiled reaching out towards something behind his mother, she turnned and saw the youngest Mirkwood prince looking at them with a confused look on his face.

"My son seems to like you Prince Legolas" Arathorn said with a smile, taking the baby gently from his wife handed him to the prince. Legolas had not had any experience with children before as despite the fact he was over 400 years old he was the youngest of the children and had never had to deal with a child Aragorn's age before. The child in his arms smiled up at him before reaching up with one hand and pulling on one of the princes braids, scowling slightly the prince looked down to see the child smiling so happliy at him that he could not stay cross and he smiled back.

"Your highness, may I speak to you in private?" Elrond asked Arathorn

"If you must." Arathorn said not particularly wanting to leave the gathering. He did however follow the elven king into one of the ante-chambers.

"I know that you do not want to hear this but there is someone within Minas Tirith who is working for Sauron. They will try and kill the child at the earliest opportunity. You must let me take Aragorn back to Imladris to protect him. If you do not then I fear you and your enitire family will be killed and the relm of Gondor will fall to the shadow lord Sauron."

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That's the first chapter of this story. I guess you can see which way this is going but you never know there may be some surprises

Please let me know what you think of this anyway and I'll update it soon.


	2. Rivendell

Thanks for the reviews in particular thanks to Aranna Undomiel who reviewed this one as well as 'Rebel fight'. Cheers for that!

"..." is human speach

'...' is elvish

Anyway I know a baby Aragorn might be cute but he's got to grow up quite fast so this may well be the last chapter with his in.

* * *

Arathorn looked amazed at the elf who had been living with them for many months now, he could not believe that after everything they had gone through Elrond was proposing that he give up his son to him.

"You can not just expect me to give my son to you, he is the heir to the throne of Gondor and as such needs to be here where his people can see him." Arathorn said.

"Arathorn listen to me, if you do not give your son to me to be raised among the elves till his 21st year then the city will fall to Sauron and all your people will die. If I keep Aragorn with me till he is of an age where he understands more and is able to fight then there may well be hope for your people as Sauron will not dare to move until he can wipe out your entire family in one move." Elrond said bluntly. He looked at the king closely and could see that his words had sunk in.

"What must I do ?" Arathorn sai eventually knowing that he did have no choice.

"Go back out there and enjoy the rest of your sons party, I shall come and take the child when this is over, I shall take Prince Legolas with me as the child seems to like him and it will help to keep him quiet. Do not try and get in contact with Aragorn in the following years but trust me to look after him and raise him as well as I can." Elrond said. He placed a hand on Elronds shoulder and applied a little preasure in comfort. Arathorn sighed and then with a shake pulled himself together and with his smile firmly in place walked out the room.

Gilraen took her son back from the Mirkwood prince not willing to let him get too far from her even among people she knew she could trust. She saw her husband come out of the room he had gone into with a fake smile on his face, to anyone else it would have looked real but to her it was obvious that he was trying to cover something up. She would ask him what was wrong later but for now she was distracted by a group of noble women who wanted a chance to look at the baby prince again, she suspected that some of them were already thinking of who they could push at him when he was old enough.

It was another hour before the party started to draw to a close and it took almost another hour before the royal family managed to escape to their chambers where they found Elrond and Legolas waiting for them both dressed for travelling.

"Gilraen, Elrond is going to take Aragorn with him tonight so wrap him up warmly and put a few spare items of clothing in a bag and let him take our son." Arathorn said.

"Why? What is wrong?" Gilraen demanded not willing to let her son out of her sight

"I'll explain it all to you later but for now we must get Aragorn out of the city." Arathorn told her. The tone in his voice tol his wife all that she needed to know which was the fact that he was not happy with having to do this, but he was going to have to do it for all of their sakes.

Legolas watched dispassionantly as the Queen of Gondor hurried round the room dressing her week old son in the warmest clothing she could find, when the child was fully dressed he stepped forward to take the child from her. She hugged the child tightly before dropping a kiss to his head. Arathorn copied her actions before lifting the child gently from her arms and placing the child in the elven princes.

"Take good care of my son for me." Arathorn said to both of the elves. They nodded and slipped out the room and to the station where Tandil was waiting with horses for the pair of them though he himself was not going to be leaving yet.

'I shall see you in few months in our fathers court.' Legolas said to his brother

'Take care little greenleaf.' Tandil said grasping his brothers forearm. Legolas passed the baby to his brother then swung into the sadle before leaning down and taking the baby back. A blanket that the baby was wrapped in was tied round his waist to ensure that the prince did not fall no matter what happened.

'We must go.' Elrond said and wheeling his horse rode out of the city, Legolas followed behind him. He expected the child to start crying at any time but Aragorn made no sound the entire time they were riding through the city, by this point Legolas had worked out that this was not normal behaviour for a child that young and had to look down to check that he was alright several times.

Elrond and Legolas rode for a further three hours before stopping to feed the baby, Elrond had prepared a formula that he hoped would work on the young prince as an alternative for now.

'Do you really think that Sauron will try and kill Aragorn ?' Legolas asked

'He will not dare to try anything while Aragorn is among our people, hopefully we will have time to start training him before he is required to return home, I just hope that nothing happens to Arathorn before Aragorn is old enough to deal with his problems.' Elrond said. He had not mentioned his belief in Denethors involvement to the king of Gondor or to the Mirkwood prince as that was something that neither needed to know and could cause problems at a later date.

* * *

Barad Dur ...

Sauron had been mildly annoyed at the birth of the prince when he had been informed of the fact by his spy in Gondor, the fact that an elf had been involved had been irritating but nothing more than that. Now he was told that the prince had gone from Gondor and had been taken to Rivendell by Elrond where he was going to be looked after by the elves till he was old enough this was going to be a serious problem in his plans as he did not dare move against Gondor while the prince was not there. As well as these concerns there was the hint of the involvement of the youngest Mirkwood child, Sauron had no idea why this one elf worried him but he did and there was no rational reason why. There were also reports of Gandalf being seen in the lands of men again and that was something that did worry him as Gandalf did not have enough power to defeat him yet but it would not take long for him to gain it and then there would be serious problems.

* * *

Rivendell some days later ...

Elronds three children were waiting for their father in the courtyard when he dismounted as word of his impending arrival had been passed to them via a series of scouts, his two sons looked delighted to see Legolas again as they had spent time together when they were younger. Their boistrous welcome to the prince was curtailed when they saw the baby in his arms who was looking around with no fear.

'This is Aragorn, I shall be raising him until he is old enough to return home.' Elrond told his children. Arwen had stepped forward to take the child from Legolas' arms and was cooing down at him and making a variety of other noises at the baby. By a supreme effort of will Legolas managed to not let what he thought about her behaviour cross his face. He had been looking after the child for some days now and had not been forced to resort to noises to comunicate with the child.

'Lord Elrond, if I could avail myself of your hospitality tonight I would be grateful then I can return to Mirkwood in the morning.' Legolas said quietly.

'You do not need to hurry away Legolas, my sons will be glad of your company it is many years since you were last together.'

'You are very kind but I need to return to my father, he was loth to let two of his sons depart from his relm for long and will be glad when we are back with him once more.' Legolas replied ' I would be pleased to visit your relm and see how the child is faring whenever I can be spared if that is agreeable to you.'

'You are welcome here any time that you want to be here. I shall let you know how Aragorn fares as well, if you wish me to.'

'Again thank you.' Legolas said before leading his horse to the stables to tend to her.

It was shortly before dawn when Legolas prepared to leave Rivendell, he went into Aragorns chamber and looked down at the child, the hair on his head had already begun to darken, one fist was pressed to his chin while holding a delicate covering over him, stooping Legolas pressed a kiss to his head before leaving the room not having any idea of how long it would be before he next saw the boy again.

* * *

There you go part 2. The next bit is going to jump ahead a few years and deal with an older Aragorn as it is a bit difficult to write about a character who cannot talk in anyway.

Please let me know what you think and I'll try and update soon as I am now home for christmas so expect updates a bit quicker.


	3. Letters

Part three is about to follow and I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reviewing this so far.

Got a few years to pass in this one so it's going to be in the form of letters from one character to another.

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Royal Proclamation 

**It is our pleasure to announce the birth of Estella daughter of Arathorn and Gilraen. Both daughter and mother are in good health and the hopes of the people of Gondor is that this birth will not be shrouded by similar events to those of three years ago when Prince Aragorn was born.**

Letter from Elrond to Legolas

_My friend I offer you congratulations on the 500th aniversary of your birth, I hope that you enjoyed the celbrations that your father threw for you. I apologise again for not being able to attend in person but due to a problem in Imladris I found it impossible. I am sure that my sons managed to cause chaos I just hope that it will not cost to much for your father to repair what damage they have caused._

_Aragorn is growing quickly and is proving to me more inteligent than I had expected him to be. I have already begun to teach him herb lore as well as over seeing his other lessons. I have no desire for him to be like many of the other young men that I observed in Gondor when he was born. Though at 10 his character is unlikely to be like it will be when he is full grown. I have hope that he will resemble the kings of the old alliance when he reaches his majority. I am starting him on combat lessons on his next birthday and I would be greatful if you would visit us in a few years and supervise archery lessons as while my people can teach his much of the craft the people of your lands are acknowledged as the greatest archers in our world._

_I will leave this letter now with continuing good will between our kingdoms and a hope that we will be seeing any of your family in Imladris soon._

Letter from Galadriel to Tharundil

_I am well aware that you hold no love for mankind on account of actions of some of them but I need to impress upon you the importance of your youngest son and a part that he needs to play in the future of both races. In several years time he needs to travel to Imladris to spend time with the son of Arathorn of Gondor who is being raised there by Elrond. I shall tell you when that needs to happen and I must impress upon you that this needs to happen, if it does not that Sauron will conquor Gondor and the rest of the kingdoms of men will soon follow. If the dark wizard does gain domination over these lands then we will not long stand against him. I do not expect that you will be happy at me for saying this to you but I assure you that I would not tell you such a thing unless I could see no other way around the problem._

Letter from Arathorn to Aragron.

**My son, I do not know how much Lord Elrond has told you about me and your mother, I do not think that he had let you grow up ignorant of who you truely are. Despite the fact that I have not contacted you in the last 16 years you must believe me when I say that you have never been out of my thoughts, I have heard from Lord Elrond several times a year and I am pleased to hear that you have done well in both the art of war and intellectual persuits as well. He also tells me that you are to take up two years service with the northern rangers as the final preparation you need to undergo before you return to your mother and I. The knowledge that is just 2 years before I get to see you again pleases me more than I can say, my best wishes go with you no matter where you go. Your loving father.**

Letter from Legolas to Elrond.

_I shall be departing my home as imediately to journey to Imladris at the express wish of my father and the lady Galadriel. I shall see you within 2 weeks._

_

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_

Next chapter Legolas arrives in Rivendell and gets to meet Aragorn again.

Please let me know what you think please.


	4. Old friends and new

here we go then the first meeting between Aragorn and Legolas when both are adults. So goodbye baby Aragorn may he be missed.

Thanks to everybody who reviewed the last chapter I wasn't aware that it was such a different way to do it. Oh well live and learn.

* * *

As Legolas rode towards Rivendell he noticed that little had changed in the 16 years since he had last been there. The place always seemed much more peaceful than his home where the spells that the evil wizard Sauron had cast against them had made it so that the woods were no longer safe.

'Prince Legolas it has been too long.' Glorfindel said to him drawing his horse along side

'Lord Glorfindel, have you been assigned to escort duty?' Legolas asked with a touch of humour

'Prince Aragorn had managed to cause some problem due to the aid of the twins.' Glorfindel said with a smile. It had certainly not been quiet since Aragorn had joined the royal family and what he did not think of, one of the twins would.

'Nothing serious I hope.' Legolas replied with a small smile at the memory of some of the things he had done hundreds of years earlier when he had been a young elf.

'Nothing that Elrond can not deal with.' Glorfindel replied hoping that the purple dye had been washed out of Haldir's hair by now.

The two elves continued towards the capital talking about acquaintances that they had not seen for some time and who were scattered across the elven kingdoms. When they entered through the main gate the Lord of Imladris and his two sons as well as one red faced human were waiting for them. Legolas looked with interest at the young man that he had brought with him to Imladris some years before. The young man seemed to have the best characteristics of both his parents, the hair that hung partway down his back was a deep brown colour as his fathers was yet had the wave to it that his mother had when Legolas had last seen her. Stopping his examination of the young mans hair Legolas hid a blush at the laughing look in the blue eyes that were staring at him as well.

'Legolas it is good to see you again. May I offer you our hospitality for as long as you desire to make use of it.' Elrond said to his friend

'Elrond, it has been too long. I hear from Glorfindel that you had a slight problem here before I arrived.' Legolas said and saw both of the twins squirm slightly and Aragorn to blush bright red.

'A minor incident which is being dealt with. I suppose you recognise Aragorn, Aragorn this is Prince Legolas of Mirkwood he helped to bring you here from your parents kingdom 16 years ago.'

'It is a pleasure to see you Prince Legolas.' Aragorn said in flawless elvish

'As it is to see you Prince Aragorn. It will be good to get to know you.'

'Legolas is here to oversee the last of your lessons before you leave us for some time.' Elrond told the human prince

'You are aware what I think about that, I will however bow to you and your greater wisdom and hope that I shall prove an apt pupil for Prince Legolas. If you would excuse me I should see how Haldir is progressing.' Aragorn said and with a bow walked away.

The evening meal was over and Legolas was looking for Aragorn, he could tell that the young human was not happy about him being there, his bad mood though may have had something to do with how Haldir had been treating him, the Lothlorien elf had managed to get most of the dye out of his hair but parts of it were still purple and Legolas just wished that he could have seen the whole effect sure that it would have been impressive.

'Are you out enjoying the night air or are you looking for someone?' Aragorn asked from nearby

'I was looking for you, I do not know why you have a problem with me being your tutor but I assure you I do not wish to cause any problems between yourself and Lord Elrond.' Legolas told him walking towards where he knew the young man was.

'I remember you, I may have been very young but I remember your voice and feeling safe.' Aragorn said quietly

'That is good to know. You were the first human child that I had ever had anything to do with. I was terrified that I would do something that would harm you.' Legolas confided with a small smile. Aragorn smiled back

'I am sorry if I have made you feel unwelcome here Legolas of Mirkwood, it is not on purpose but I am nervous about returning to my home and the longer I spend training the longer that day will take to arrive.' Aragorn said.

'That is understandable, I know that humans do not live for as long as elves and to have been apart from your family for so many of the important events of your life must be very difficult.'

'Lord Elrond, has spoken to me about the separation of our two races and I worry that the more time I spend among the elven people the more my future subjects will dislike me. That is why I am so anxious to return to my home and finish my training here.'

'If you are as accomplished as the twins say then I am sure that I will not need to be here long.' Legolas said resting a hand on the young mans shoulder, he could not imagine what it would be like to grow up away from your family and among a different race, it would be difficult certainly and it showed much for Aragorn's strength of character that he was willing to admit his faults to a virtual stranger.

'I will be glad to learn anything that you have to teach me,' Aragorn said with a smile.

'And I will be glad to teach you whatever I can.' Legolas said. 'I will wish you good night and I will see you on the archery field an hour after dawn tomorrow.' With that the elven prince left looking for Glorfindel who he wanted to continue to speak to.

The young prince of Gondor watched his new tutor walk off, he was surprised that he had liked the elf so quickly as he usually took much longer to warm up to people. What surprised him the most was the fact that he still felt so safe around Legolas despite the fact that he was 16 now and not a few days old.

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How long has it been since this last got updated? It's ages since I last did a chapter, should be more frequent updates from now on as I've finally finished my second year at uni and have only got to read for my diss and work so plenty of time.

Let me know what you thought of that chapter and I'll start a new one soon.


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